The USA Isn’t Going To Break-Up In 2010, But…

For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument — that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. — very seriously.

…Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

…Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

In addition to increasing coverage in state media, which are tightly controlled by the Kremlin, Mr. Panarin’s ideas are now being widely discussed among local experts. He presented his theory at a recent roundtable discussion at the Foreign Ministry. The country’s top international relations school has hosted him as a keynote speaker. During an appearance on the state TV channel Rossiya, the station cut between his comments and TV footage of lines at soup kitchens and crowds of homeless people in the U.S. The professor has also been featured on the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda channel, Russia Today.

Mr. Panarin’s apocalyptic vision “reflects a very pronounced degree of anti-Americanism in Russia today,” says Vladimir Pozner, a prominent TV journalist in Russia. “It’s much stronger than it was in the Soviet Union.”

First off, let me say that I think the idea that the United States is about to shatter into different sections in the next few years is perfectly ridiculous.

BUT….

History is replete with examples of once great nations that grew weak and couldn’t maintain their territorial integrity.

How large is the British empire today compared to what it used to be? How is the Soviet Union doing? What’s the Ottoman Empire up to today? Remember when the Roman Empire used to be the most powerful force in the known world? How about when Alexander was an unstoppable force? Ghengis Khan, anybody?

In our case, we are engaged in practices that are a genuine threat to the continued success of our nation. We’re bringing in record numbers of immigrants, both legal and illegal, and we’re doing a poor job of assimilating them. The level of government spending we’re engaged in is absolutely unsustainable. Our military is overstretched and being hampered by ridiculous rules. Morally, Christianity is slowly declining and the family structure in our country is being torn apart piece by piece. Additionally, our political class supports a host of perfectly ridiculous, unworkable ideas that will surely make our situation worse.

Now, I don’t want to give you the idea that we’re doomed, because we’re not, but make no mistake about it: this country will not continue to be a great nation unless we make some rather significant changes in the way that we’re operating.